Last weekend I made my way to the great Canyonlands; a place that is growing on me ever so slightly. Although my mindset was shooting new composition, I had to stop by the famous Green River Overlook to shoot the great iconic Soda Springs Canyon. The clouds were overwhelming. The 25-30 people from all over the world, patiently waited for a great sunset. It had to be disappointing and I couldn't blame them.
The GPS was showing the sunset time and nothing was happening...Until I saw some sweet, sweet light happening in the Candlestick Tower area, about a 5-7 minute run from the overlook. I said to the two women from Maine "Ladies, this is what we landscapers do, we chase light...litterally." Like an idiot, I picked up my gear and ran through the crowed and made my way up onto the tiny plateau area and basically pucked when I arrived. Oh boy was the light nice!
While shooting, I noticed a group of people following me up onto the plateau. All of them were so excited to see this scene, I felt a slight sense of relief that my ridiculous expedited exit at the overlook paid off for others. A gentleman from France with his family of five commented "Ive waited 34 years to see a sunset like that." That's when it hit me. How lucky I was, and to never forget why I do what I do. To see scenes like this, makes me feel completely full, if it was just for one night, I'll take it!
Tech stuff for image #1 (please see the Larger submitted image)
4 image vertical stitch. May come across as needing a crop, however I want to print this one wall size where some of the additional comp should add more depth.
Posted by Jared Warren on August 18, 2013 at 9:20 PM
Wow. amazing images, and great story as well. Amen, brother.
Posted by Anne K. Rusk on August 18, 2013 at 11:14 PM
What a great sunset! You did a wonderful job of showing the scale and drama of the scene. I like the inclusion of the lit wall on the pano's right side. Beautiful, Kane!
Posted by Ken Henke on August 18, 2013 at 11:30 PM
Both images are stunning for sure. As Anne mentioned, the first displays the scale of Canyonlands well, but those sun rays illuminating from the ridge top of the second image is quite special and unique.
Nice! I prefer #2, the rays are cool. I suppose a strong colorcast is appropriate here, but im wondering how a blue-neutralized version would look, since it's a pretty warm scene.
What a blessing you had being there at the right time. And, you were also paid off for your hustle to get in the right place. Well done, Kane! Gorgeous color in both.
Posted by John Mumaw on August 20, 2013 at 8:10 PM
What a wonderful story! Humbling and inspiring. It's great to see such a unique viewpoint from Canyonlands, too.
I like the depth and composition of the pano. quite a bit. And that light!!
I do find the brightest brights to be quite distracting, though. Bringing them down would be a real asset, IMO.
This is why I favor the second image. Much less brightness on the hoeizon and those sun rays are wonderful!
I'm glad you were able to witness this scene, esp. with some company.
Posted by Doug Koepsel on August 20, 2013 at 10:49 PM
Kane, the red bands radiating upward in #2 are great. I think they supersede the greater sunset colors in #1, but overall I prefer #1, aside from the white portions of sky. Would have been cool to have both sunset and rays in the same exposure. Is the candlestick catching some reflected light in #1?
Thank you my friends, good feedback. All in all, I'm gonna keep it as is. John, the pano is compressed from a wall sized image to this basic thumbnail. I'm fairly confident the graduation between darks, to mids to highlights will look pretty good in a wall sized image. The blown out parts IMO are necessary considering I was shooting directly in the sun. I do think a nice sun star would have helped here with the blown out sky portion. When I arrived at that shooting place, I had seconds of sun before it dipped.. and instead of stopping way down to get a nice sun star I kept shooting the remainder of the pano. To me, this is how I remember the scene, and it felt just right.
Stan, the blue color cast is a result of me shooting at 5700K. For me and my artistic vision 5700 is my warmest point I prefer going with the sun. I think that number is plenty warm before too much yellow starts to rear its ugly head. However, I did reduce the yellow slider in this image so in theory I could have shot this one at about 6000K and not used selective color.
Discussion
9 repliesThe GPS was showing the sunset time and nothing was happening...Until I saw some sweet, sweet light happening in the Candlestick Tower area, about a 5-7 minute run from the overlook. I said to the two women from Maine "Ladies, this is what we landscapers do, we chase light...litterally." Like an idiot, I picked up my gear and ran through the crowed and made my way up onto the tiny plateau area and basically pucked
While shooting, I noticed a group of people following me up onto the plateau. All of them were so excited to see this scene, I felt a slight sense of relief that my ridiculous expedited exit at the overlook paid off for others. A gentleman from France with his family of five commented "Ive waited 34 years to see a sunset like that." That's when it hit me. How lucky I was, and to never forget why I do what I do. To see scenes like this, makes me feel completely full, if it was just for one night, I'll take it!
Tech stuff for image #1 (please see the Larger submitted image)
4 image vertical stitch. May come across as needing a crop, however I want to print this one wall size where some of the additional comp should add more depth.
I like the depth and composition of the pano. quite a bit. And that light!!
I do find the brightest brights to be quite distracting, though. Bringing them down would be a real asset, IMO.
This is why I favor the second image. Much less brightness on the hoeizon and those sun rays are wonderful!
I'm glad you were able to witness this scene, esp. with some company.
Stan, the blue color cast is a result of me shooting at 5700K. For me and my artistic vision 5700 is my warmest point I prefer going with the sun. I think that number is plenty warm before too much yellow starts to rear its ugly head. However, I did reduce the yellow slider in this image so in theory I could have shot this one at about 6000K and not used selective color.